BAY AREA AND NATION / One day to help the homeless

Published 4:00 am, Friday, December 9, 2005

Photo: MARK COSTANTINI

Image 1of/1

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 1

Susan Miiler, of CityTeam Ministries washes the feet of homeless man Dalibar Loric(cq) at the event.
San Francisco's home-grown Project Homeless Connect goes national on Thursday, with 21 cities around the country conducting their own versions of the city's popular bimonthly homeless-aid fair that day, and 10 more following suit in the ensuing month. Bush's national homelessness czar helped organize the national expansion, calling Connect � in which hundreds of volunteers gather for a day to help the city's homeless people get into housing or services -- one of the most innovative ideas for helping the homeless to come along in years. We will check in with events in SF and other cities to see how it goes. Event on 12/08/05 in San Francisco
Photo: Mark Costantini /San Francisco Chronicle less

Susan Miiler, of CityTeam Ministries washes the feet of homeless man Dalibar Loric(cq) at the event.
San Francisco's home-grown Project Homeless Connect goes national on Thursday, with 21 cities around the ... more

Photo: MARK COSTANTINI

BAY AREA AND NATION / One day to help the homeless

1 / 1

Back to Gallery

In Philadelphia, counselors laid out a barbecue for men and women who'd spent the night shivering in subway tunnels. In Miami, volunteers coiffed the hair of 350 people who hadn't seen a barber, let alone a bed, for months. And in Norfolk, Va., more than 100 homeless people got their first job seminars in years.

Project Homeless Connect, the one-day homeless aid fair that began small a year ago in San Francisco, went national Thursday -- and by sundown, more than 6,000 homeless people in 21 cities from Nashua, N.H., to Hollywood had been fed, massaged and helped into welfare services or housing.

"We've stolen the idea from San Francisco, and, as a result, more than 6,000 homeless got help today," said Philip Mangano, President Bush's national homelessness czar. "San Francisco gave to the country a big gift today -- a big gift to the homeless."

When Mayor Gavin Newsom conceived the idea of assembling community volunteers one day every two months to help homeless people, organizers didn't know whether to expect chaos or success. Bringing people out of their houses and jobs for a day to help the chronically homeless -- whose mental-health problems and addictions could make them tough to deal with -- had never been done on such a wide scale in the city.

As it turned out, homeless people appreciated being treated with respect, and the non-homeless were grateful for the chance to get to know folks they might otherwise hurry by. The Connect events grew so big, they had to be moved into the Bill Graham Auditorium. Word of the bimonthly gatherings spread to homeless-policy managers around the country, and after they and Mangano attended a few Connects, they resolved to launch Thursday's national expansion.

It was such a success that participants plan to duplicate the gatherings several times a year now, Mangano and managers from several different cities said.

"We really didn't know what to expect, and this event has been just tremendous," said Brad Simon, homeless services director in Miami, where 540 volunteers helped 639 people. "Now I know for sure that if you build it, they will come."

Just as important as the number of homeless people helped, Mangano said, was the number of volunteers who turned out across the country -- about 5,000. He added that a dozen more cities intend to stage Connects in the coming week, bringing to 33 the number of municipal participants.

About 700,000 people are homeless throughout the country on any given night, according to national homeless counts taken last January.

On Thursday, San Francisco's Connect drew 1,508 volunteers and 1,542 homeless people, said mayoral aide Alex Tourk. The other Connect held in the Bay Area, San Jose's, drew 230 volunteers and 700 homeless people -- double what was expected.

"I can't believe there's a day like this," Ron Allen, 47, said in San Francisco, where Federal Express employees helped him and about 120 other homeless people compose holiday cards to be delivered by the company. Allen sent one to his grandmother in Indianapolis, whom he hadn't seen in 24 years.

"This is fantastic," he said over and over, grinning as he drew a Christmas tree on the card.

Latest from the SFGATE homepage:

Click below for the top news from around the Bay Area and beyond. Sign up for our newsletters to be the first to learn about breaking news and more. Go to 'Sign In' and 'Manage Profile' at the top of the page.